We had to be up bright and early today and were out and on our way super quick so as to be at The Prince Hotel on the other side of Shinagawa station by 7.30am to board our coach for our day trip to Mount Fuji. Once on board, the next hour and a half was very much snooze material as it involved trailing round picking up people from other hotels as the tour didn't really start till 9am! Unlucky us to be the first pick-up.

After that we were soon on the motorway and heading, literally, for the hills. Before long the landscape changed and there were mountains rising on each side, lakes in the valleys and villages perched in between. Great banks of solar panels faced south to catch the sun and snow piled by the side of the road showed how cold it has been. Our guide was very chatty with very good English and soon had us repeating greetings in Japanese and counting from 1 to 10 from a display she had brought with her. Clearly a very good organiser.

We stopped at the Fuji Visitor Centre at around 10.30am for a comfort break and had hot chocolate and French fries, quite a combination! We went onto the viewing terrace but couldn't get a view of Mount Fuji due to cloud cover. Back on the bus, our guide told us that sadly we would not be able to go on up to the 5th Station as planned because there was heavy snow and the road was closed. This was disappointing but she said that we would head for an alternative viewing point nearby. Just as we turned into the car park the clouds cleared and we had magnificent views of Mount Fuji. We all piled out of the coach, cameras and phones snapping away and never mind the cold. What a wonderful sight! Apparently we are very lucky as there is only a 50% chance of a sighting, funny they never mentioned that before we booked the trip!

Back on the coach we soon arrived at our lunch stop at the lovely Hakone Lake Hotel. We were served a slightly strange but perfectly adequate western style meal. Apparently you are only allowed a Japanese style meal if you are booked on the Japanese speaking coach tour! Afterwards we drove on through the mountains. The villages we saw became more and more like those you come across in Switzerland, very Alpine in style and lovely to look at.

We arrived at beautiful Lake Ashi, ready to board what was billed in the programme as a pirate boat cruise. We weren't at all sure what to expect, but sure enough there she was, a prate ship for our sailing pleasure! To be honest it was a bit more like a Spanish Galleon than a pirate ship but impressive, nonetheless, and quite an unexpected find in the middle of the mountains of Japan!! It was very, very cold outside and we paid the small fee for an upgrade to the cosy, deluxe cabin, much better than standing out on deck. We had a 30 minute trip on what is actually a ferry across to the other side of this large and beautiful lake where we disembarked and re-boarded our coach which had travelled round to meet us.

Our next stop was at the Hakone Komagatake Ropeway, going up Komagatake mountain, overlooking Lake Ashi. We had been expecting small cable cars carrying 4 to 6 people, but this was a large one taking more than a hundred people and we were all jammed in. It was a bit claustrophobic and very difficult to see the view because of all the people in the car. Once at the top we all piled out, and boy was it cold!! Luckily we were wrapped up warm but it was freezing!! It was beautiful, though, because of all the snow and ice. All the shrubs and plants above a certain point were decorated with ice, every twig and branch sparkling and looking almost like man-made sculptures. From up there we also had a beautiful view of the lake below and right out to sea in the distance. No view of Mount Fuji, though, but we didn't mind as we had seen it already!

Simon and I rushed to catch the next car down the mountain and were glad we did as it was almost empty so we had a much better view. We walked on down to the lake past lots of little cafes, ice-cream and beach shops currently closed for the winter. It is clearly a very busy lake-side beach resort in summer but almost deserted now. We found a cafe that was open and guzzled more hot chocolate, just the thing to warm us up.

This was the last stop on our tour and next stop was the station at Odawara. We picked up our tickets from the guide and literally ran all the way through the station to the platform just in time to catch the Bullet Train (Shinkansen) back to Shinagawa station in Tokyo. What a lovely way to end the tour!

Back at Shinagawa we stopped off at the lovely Atre Bar on the station. We sat at the bar and drank some excellent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc whilst enjoying a selection of their delicious home-made breads.

Later in the evening we decided to explore the local Shinagawa area. There hadn't been much here last time we visited but worth a look. We were walking along a street which appeared to be quite empty, but we could hear some noise coming from behind some plastic sheeting. It looked like some building work wrapped up for the night but we decided to brave a quick look inside. When we pulled aside the plastic sheet we discovered a lively bar packed full of people! What a surprise! After this we realised that there were many such places around, obviously open air bars in the summer but using plastic sheeting to keep the warmth in during the winter. You can't even tell they are there, though, amazing! Anyway, we went inside and enjoyed a couple of cold beers and a few skewers. It was so packed that they were turning people away so we were the lucky ones!